In recent years, there has been an increasing trend of the use of electronic shopping basket applications for providing an Internet user a mechanism in which to temporarily store goods and/or services prior to purchasing these goods and/or services electronically. Typically, these shopping cart applications reside on a Web server of a merchant or shopping site and are limited to use only on that particular site. A user can visit the merchant's web site and use the shopping cart application to purchase goods and/or services without having to enter the user's personal information multiple times for each transaction. The user must propagate the shopping basket each time the user desires to add a product or service to the shopping basket, for example, by clicking on a link describing the product and/or service. The link then accesses a database on the server where detailed information about the product and/or service is retrieved. The selected products can then be purchased, at that site only, concurrently or individually as desired.
Another recent application that has evolved is the gift list or wish list application. The gift list or wish list application allows a user to add product and/or services that the user desires to a list. The gift list or wish list is then available to others for viewing, so that others may purchase items on the list as a gift for the user. Again these gift or wish applications reside on a Web server of a merchant or shopping site and are limited to use only on the that particular site. Additionally, in both the shopping basket applications and the wish list applications, only the user may access and modify products and/or services residing within the shopping basket and wish list.
Accordingly, there is an unmet need in the art for a system and method that mitigates the above stated deficiencies with traditional shopping carts and wish list applications.